Heavy Traffic Expected for Rutgers’ May 18 Commencement

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers’ 248th anniversary commencement will begin rain or shine at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, May 18, at High Point Solutions Stadium on the Busch Campus in Piscataway. The ceremony is expected to conclude around 2 p.m. and will be followed by collegiate and departmental convocations and receptions on the Busch and Livingston campuses in Piscataway, and on the College Avenue and Cook/Douglass campuses in New Brunswick.

With an estimated 16,431 graduates, plus thousands of family members, friends and well-wishers from the Rutgers community, a crowd as large as 40,000 might fill the stadium for the free event. Commencement draws much additional traffic to the area. Travelers should expect delays on local streets and on Route 18 in the vicinity of New Brunswick and Piscataway. Roadways including College Avenue, George Street, River Road, Hoes Lane, Metlars Lane and the John Lynch and Landing Lane bridges all will experience heavy traffic.

Residents of Highland Park and visitors will need to follow detours on May 18. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., vehicles traveling north on Route 27 must make a right turn onto South Second Avenue, then a left onto Magnolia Street, then a left again onto South Fifth Avenue before turning right onto Route 27. Vehicles traveling south on Route 27 must turn right onto North Fifth Avenue, left onto Denison Street and left onto North Second Avenue before turning right onto Route 27.

To help with traffic flow, all visitors driving to commencement who previously requested a parking space should display hang tags that correspond to color-coded parking zones. Free shuttle buses from the Busch, College Avenue, Douglass, George H. Cook and Livingston campuses, and the New Brunswick train station, will run frequently before and after the ceremony at High Point Solutions Stadium.

Those with scarlet tags must enter the Busch Campus via the intersection of River and Sutphen roads. For blue parking lots scattered throughout Busch, enter via Route 18 to Campus Road. Guests with orange tags can park near the Louis Brown Athletic Center (RAC) on the Livingston Campus via Route 18 and streets from Metlars Lane to Avenue E. Green tag holders will be shuttled from the Cook and Douglass campuses.

White tag holders must park in College Avenue lots and board buses on College Avenue near the Rutgers Student Center. Those attendees without passes are asked to park in downtown New Brunswick in one of the paid public parking lots.

On Monday, May 19, the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy’s convocation is scheduled in the College Avenue Gym at 10 a.m. The School of Environmental and Biological Sciences’ convocation is scheduled on the Cook Campus at 10 a.m. Motorists should anticipate delays on Nichol Avenue, College Farm Road, Ryders Lane and George Street.

Information about commencement parking and shuttle service is available here.